3D Printing Takes New Heights

For those who have not heard or experienced 3D printing, be prepared to have your mind blown. 3D printing is a simple (and expensive) way to make a solid three dimensional object from a digital file. The printer will make the object by using a layering system coupled with a filling system. The time-lapse video presented will demonstrate this system by creating the solid of Yoda using the honeycomb filling system:

So how does this get done from digital file to 3D? A 3D printing will use a CAD (Computer Aided Design) software partnered with a scanner to create a digital model of an object, and then convert it into a solid. There are actually different technologies used in compiling the object into a model such as The Selective Laser Sintering (SLS), where  tiny particles of plastic, ceramic or glass are fused together by heat from a high-power laser, the Stereolithography (SLA), in which liquid solidis converted to the solid object, and the Fused Deposition Modeling (FDM), where a thermoplastic filament, which is heated to its melting point and then extruded, layer by layer. 

3D printing is used for a variety of things, such as transplants and modeling, but this week there was a game changing event. A new company called Carbon3D thrives off of this new technology in what the company calls "new paper." Inspired by Terminator 2, introducing the newest method of 3D printing, the "continuous" method:

This method forgoes the layering system and instead uses a pool of resin, with an attached UV light inside, to create a series of images which then forms the object. A concern to this is how to keep the liquid fresh and to do this, the engineers and scientists designed a "dead zone" of desired oxygen so that it would prevent the resin from sticking to the bottom surface.

This device is very precise (to the .1 mm) and is very expedient in its process. It's still in its prototype stage and is set to hit the market sometime this year. With it, we can create more. With many high-quality products becoming more abundant, cheaper and affordable, people may be able to "play around" with this technology and create something super incredible and necessary for our world!